“He did not waver at the promise of God through unbelief, but was strengthened in faith, giving glory to God, and being fully convinced that what He had promised He was also able to perform.” (Romans 4:20-21 NKJV)
As Abraham continued to walk with God, he reached a point where he could no longer doubt any of God’s promises.
The Scripture reveals that there was a point in Abraham’s walk with God that “He did not waver at the promise of God through unbelief, but was strengthened in faith, giving glory to God, and being fully convinced that what He had promised He was also able to perform.” (Rom. 4:20-21 NKJV).
From that point, Abraham’s eyes became fixed on God’s promises, and he would not “consider his own body, already dead (since he was about a hundred years old), and the deadness of Sarah’s womb.” (Rom. 4:19 NKJV).
You also must desire to get to that point in your walk with God!
Abraham’s conviction about God’s ability to perform what He had promised resulted from his intimacy with God. He had come to know God too well to doubt His willingness, power, or ability to fulfill His promises to him.
Even when all things in the natural realm were contrary to what God had promised Abraham, he did not waver at the promise of God through unbelief because of his revelation-knowledge of God. Abraham had come to know God as the One who gives life to the dead and calls into existence that which does not exist (Rom. 4:17).
Like Abraham, if you also get to know God well enough, you will never again doubt God’s willingness and ability to fulfill His promises.
The root of unbelief is ignorance!
Your lack of confidence in God’s Word indicates a lack of revelation knowledge of the God of the Word. You constantly struggle to believe or trust God to perform what He has promised you because you don’t have personal revelation knowledge of God’s infinite love, wisdom, and power.
It is impossible to know God intimately and still doubt His willingness and ability to do whatever He said He would do for you. Unbelief or doubt is an offshoot of ignorance of God’s love for you in Christ Jesus.
You will always doubt God’s promises to you until you are fully convinced that God loves you unconditionally and infinitely. If you are rooted, settled, and grounded in God’s love, nothing can shake or overthrow your confidence in God’s words or promises (Rom. 8:35-39, Eph. 3:17-19).
You cannot have a revelation or experiential knowledge of God’s love for you in Christ Jesus and still struggle to trust God to supply all your needs, heal, deliver, protect, or guide and help you.
When you know, recognize, or acknowledge God as your light, salvation, and strength, your heart will never fear or doubt; instead, you will also be confident and bold (Psa. 27:1-3).
Although the children of Israel saw diverse signs and wonders of God while in Egypt and in the wilderness on their way to the Promised Land, they continually doubted God’s love, wisdom, power, and promises (Psa. 78:19-20).
You may ask, “What on earth was wrong with the children of Israel?”
Ignorance!
Lack of revelation knowledge of God!
They never got to know God intimately!
They only knew the acts of God, but they did not know the ways of God (Psa. 103:7). Like the children of Israel, you will never know what it means to be steadfast in the faith, not wavering at the promise of God through unbelief, if you don’t have personal and intimate revelation knowledge of God.
Only those who know God intimately can trust Him wholeheartedly. Therefore, intimacy with God is an effective antidote against unbelief. The depth of your personal, intimate, or experiential knowledge of God determines the degree to which you will trust God. You cannot trust God more than you know Him.
Trusting God is the fruit of knowing God!
When you know God deeply, you will trust Him better!
Like Abraham, as you grow in the revelation knowledge of God, you will get to a point when you are fully convinced that God can perform what He has promised. Moreover, as you renew your mind increasingly with the truths of God’s Word, you can trust God increasingly.
An unrenewed mind is the breeding ground for fear, unbelief, and doubt. Therefore, you cannot overcome fear, doubt, or unbelief without renewing your mind according to the truths of God’s Word.
Your unrenewed physical mind doubts and rejects God’s promises or words (Rom. 8:7). Your physical mind has been properly schooled, trained, programmed, or set by your old, sinful, and fallen self to fear, doubt, rationalize, or reject spiritual realities (1 Cor. 2:14).
Even though you are now a new creation or self in Christ, you still possess the same physical mind of the old self, trained to doubt and rationalize God’s Word. Therefore, when you allow your unrenewed physical mind to rule, dominate, or control you, you will always doubt and rationalize God’s promises or words.
It was not the boisterous wind that was responsible for Peter sinking while walking on water towards Jesus, but his unrenewed physical mind. Peter began to sink when he started to see and process the boisterous wind in his mind, as any natural man would (Matt. 14:30). At that point, fear and doubt began to dominate his mind, causing him to sink.
The unrenewed physical mind is the primary cause of why many believers today are sinking into sins, sicknesses, defeat, failure, or poverty. You cannot walk in the perpetual victory Christ has won for you if you only see, think, or process things in your physical mind as a natural man.
Like Peter, God has given you all that it takes to walk on the troubled water of life, but without renewing your mind or thinking according to the truths of God’s Word, you may not walk long on the troubled water of life before you begin to doubt God’s Word and thus begin to sink.
It took a renewed mind for Paul not to sink into doubt, unbelief, depression, and discouragement when he was hard-pressed. He didn’t see or process his sufferings for the sake of Christ with his physical mind as a natural man would.
That is why Paul could say, “For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory.” (2 Cor. 4:17 NKJV).
Similarly, no matter how hard the devil may press you on every side, like Paul, you will not doubt God’s love for you and faithfulness to keep His promises if you don’t see and process things with your unrenewed or carnal mind.
Beloved, no boisterous wind or storms of life can cause your faith to falter, shake your confidence in God’s promises, or make you doubt God’s love for you and thus make you sink into depression and despair if you choose not to see, perceive, view or regard the storms of life as natural men would do but as a spiritual man in Christ Jesus.
Fear, doubt, or unbelief can only rule and dominate your mind when you begin to see, evaluate, and process what happens to you as a natural man would.
Therefore, stop seeing, thinking, or processing things as natural men do. Instead, begin to see, think, and process things as a new creation in Christ, just as Jesus Christ Himself would.
That is the sure way to overcome fear, doubt, and unbelief!
Prayer:
Dear Heavenly Father, teach me daily by Your Word and Spirit how to see, think, reason, perceive, and process trials and challenges of life as a new creation in Christ, in Jesus’ name. Amen.